To think if your child needs an NHS orthodontist, and cant go private, the appointments are during term time only from 9.30 to 3pm

[LieLikeALoungeroomLizard]

So either pay thousands or your child will have to miss school in year 10 and 11

Most orthodontist appointments are around 20 minutes tops - the initial fitting one is usually a half day and it's quite common for the afternoon or following morning to be taken off due to discomfort. Other than that, the emergency 'a wire's snapped' appointments have been done by many so quickly that the kids have left, been driven there, had it done and been driven back before the end of the lesson.

We know it happens, we know it's the realistic time/age for kids to need authorised absences for orthodontist appointments. It's not the end of the world, especially now most schools will put the work for the week onto the online learning by Monday morning. A ten thirty appointment will usually see them back before lunch.

Obviously, if somebody starts taking entire days off for a wire fix, it's not a good thing, but in all, missing an hour every 2 months isn't a disaster - and it's better than the kids last year who had to go months without access to orthodontics, so we had multiple kids out every single day when they'd not even been in school for a week.

And leaving the morning/lunchtime/evenings to adults means that staff can get dental appointments without affecting cover as much.

Tl;dr it happens. No point getting het up about it.

Ds went every 10-12 weeks over about 4 years. Could you be referred to hospital orthodontics rather than a practice.

Mine didn't miss much school, some appointments fell in the holidays.
Some after school, private practice but dd got NHS treatment.

Would it matter to lose part of a morning or afternoon's schooling? As long as the appointments are not scheduled during exams I don't think it worth worrying about.

I took my son to a private orthodontist. It's only open 9-5 mon Thur and a half-day on a Friday. So only school hours. It never occurred to me it was an issue. He just changed the day occasionally so wasn't the same class missed. And caught upon what missed.

Lose out on their education ffs, it's a few hours every now and then!

My kid's orthodontist offers appointments 9-5 M-F but of course the after school ones are usually booked solid. I try to book in the middle of the day since she is home educated and we may as well leave the early and late appointments for those who need them.

It is tough, I don't know why they don't do evening and weekend appointments as my GP surgery finally does.

It does feel like it excludes children of parents who don't have a stay at home parent (often with car) or a parent who can work flexibly.

@LieLikeALoungeroomLizard

She would perhaps be quite happy to skip pe

Well I doubt you will be able to schedule the apps round her preferred subjects. Take what you get.

Miss school? For fucks sake it’s an average of 1 appt every six weeks. Just be bloody grateful they’re getting free treatment, and give your head a wobble while you’re at it OP.

treatment is not age dependent but teeth dependent, so private or NHS won't change that but its down to individual. We are Warwickshire and NHS and appts avail after school but you have to kind of jig around for them. Situation at the moment is they won't allow kids out and back to school for appts at the moment so its a full day off if in school hrs. But then at the moment with the way exams are for yr 11 I am not too fussed. Personally in my view 10,11,12 and 13 should be prioritised for out of hrs and everything else around that stuff nhs vs private. Dentist still gets paid either way. Also we were quoted 2.5K for private all in.

I’ve got two dds at the orthodontist. The difference between private care and NHS treatment really was negligible in terms of what they needed doing. However the selling up of the private care was more convenient appts.

Private or not the site shuts for lunch so I’d be paying for the privilege of an appt outside of school hours but still in business hours.

I don't know that she will qualify for it on the NHS yet do I?.
I might have to wait a yeat to find that out and realise we've wasted a year

My son was on an NHS waiting list from age 14-17. By the time he actually had the braces on he was about to go to uni. His appointments are every 6 weeks or so, last for about 20 mins and they are very helpful at fitting him in around term times, nearly all have been in the holidays.

Sorry, I realise it's not great but YABU. So basically after school being 4pm appointments onwards, thats only one or two patients per day. And the orthodontist may need to leave sharp at 5pm if this is their working time for example, if their work times finish then and they need to collect children from nursery (or just want to leave work on time!). So that could mean finishing clinically at 4.30pm.

I went every three months, for a year. I would get the last appointment so barely missed anything.

Think saying they’re ‘missing out on an education’ is over egging the pudding.

I know what you mean, OP. My two eldest children both needed orthodontic treatment, my daughter started hers when she was 11 and a half (no idea what "year" that would be in England but we were in P7 in Scotland), she had completed her treatment by the time she was 14. Her orthodontist was very efficient, she'd always be running exactly to time and I had it down to a fine art ensuring she missed the very minimum of time at school.

DS was another matter, he was older when he lost his last baby teeth and was a more complex case. He didn't start treatment until he was 14 and his orthodontist (another within the same practice) was incredibly slow. He NEVER ran to time, we regularly waited 30 or 40 minutes past appointment time. We asked about switching to another orthodontist within the same practice and they said no. We quickly learned to ask for the first appointment at 9am or the one immediately after lunch at 2pm to minimise the waiting time.

Incredibly frustrating.

2 of my DSs have had NHS orthodontist appts in school holidays and during term time. They have been very accommodating in giving us early or late appts during term time to minimise time out of school. Dses were Y10 upwards during this time so GCSE and A level years. I've not heard of a term time only rule at all - must be your orthodontist.

My appointments were in school time and because we had a long-ish journey both ways with limited public transport I used to get the whole day off :). It made getting braces almost worth it.

Well you have a choice. Either suck it up or pay. FFS it's FREE.

Surely worth missing a few hours of school for? If they are open 9.00 to 3.30 go over the lunch break.

I remember missing school for orthodontist appointments, occasional hospital appointments. I really don't think a few hours here and there make a difference

My experience is the same as yours OP, and in some cases you end up going every week for a while. ours was a 30 minute journey, 30 minutes in the waiting room, 10 minutes in the chair, 30 minutes back. So easily miss most of the morning.

So I'm confused why so many people are gainsaying you - surely we can all appreciate that different NHS areas might have different arrangements?

Mine mostly had them in holidays, the orthodontist prioritised secondary pupils for holiday appointments. Also, tbh, they can manage with missing the odd lesson, I really think unless a child needs a lot of support that this is a non-issue. We used to book appointments on the afternoon when one of the lessons was PE for example.

My ds got his braces all free on NHS. I'm pretty sure they were open in school holidays.

Other than putting the brace on and taking it off the appointments are every 6-8 weeks and pretty quick. We went to an orthodontist that was 30 minutes drive away (because of shorter wait; worth asking if this is possible for you) and DD didn't miss that much school. We aimed to get the first or last appointments of the day. It's really not the end of the world if they miss the odd lesson or two every so often. Hospital appointments are worse - you have no control at all over when they are and they always end up in the middle of the day.